Would You Go to the Theater For a Four-Hour Movie?

February 4, 2009

For a few weeks now, Steven Soderbergh's super-long (over four hours) biopic about Che Guevara has been playing in select cities. In some theaters here in San Francisco, the two parts of the film are screened back-to-back with an intermission between them.

That's a long time in the theater (or . . . anywhere) for one movie.

Would you sit through a movie this long in the theater?

Photo courtesy of IFC

29 Comments

Allytta 4 years 13 weeks

i already have done that. not maybe excact 4 hours, but LOTR is pretty long.

Symphonee 4 years 14 weeks

I really wanted to see the movie yeah. Not this one.

Marni7 4 years 14 weeks

for this movie, yes.

greentea14 4 years 14 weeks

Yeah the intermission would be great, I can't wait to watch this movie, I love el Che.

austinfab 4 years 14 weeks

please let there be an intermission...a girl has got to use the restroom even I am REALLY interested in the movie. I love movies, but when nature calls....

Katie Kat 4 years 14 weeks

I totally would see a movie that long if I were interested in it...this movie, however, is not somethingn I'm interested in.

genesisrocks 4 years 14 weeks

Too long! And it would be even worse watching it at home with all the distractions

NadiaPotter 4 years 14 weeks

jajaja for the Che, no, but yeah, for harry potter, or LOTR, even for school of rock but yeah, not even in my house, I watched movies in parts, example: on Monday I watched 45 minutes, on Tuesday I watched another 20 minutes...

TidalWave 4 years 14 weeks

Not in the theatre. I could handle LOTR but wanted to die during Grindhouse and Benjamin Button. I could handle this at home since I had no problem watching Lawrence of Arabia on the couch.

syako 4 years 14 weeks

To answer the question, no - not in a theater. And he!! no for this movie, not in a theater, not at my house, not for free on the Internets. I read a funny interview with Soderbergh and Del Toro in the Wash Times. The interviewer was asking them why a lot of the elements of Che's life were ignored *you know, the not-so glamorous parts of executing innocent people, forced labor camps and what not* and Del Toro got so mad he stormed out of the interview "I'm getting uncomfortable, I'm done. I'm done, I hope you write whatever you want. I don't give a da**." Um, what did he expect?

LaLaLaurie06 4 years 14 weeks

I could handle the three hours of Lord of the Rings and some of the Harry Potter movies, but four hours... I'm really interested in the life of Che but I think I'd rather watch something like this in the comfort of my own home where I can take bathroom breaks whenever I want OR just read The Motorcycle Diaries/watch that movie again. Gael Garcia Bernal is nicer to look at than Benicio del Toro anyway. ;)

tlsgirl 4 years 14 weeks

No way, especially not for this movie.

PinkNC 4 years 14 weeks

I would for Star Wars, Harry Potter, LOTR, or anything else that's extremely interesting to me with an actual good plot. Of course there would have to be an intermission after the first 2 hours. . Oh, and for this type of movie NO THANKS.

emalove 4 years 14 weeks

For this movie, no thanks. But there are a few that I definitely would.

nakitabanana27 4 years 14 weeks

If it were the last Harry Potter movie and they did it all in one big shin-dig.. :) But i also liked Australia which is extremely long, as well as Apocalypse Now...

i heart monster 4 years 14 weeks

heck ya, especially if there's an intermission.

MrsJamesTKirk 4 years 14 weeks

For a movie about Che Guevara, no. For something like Gone With the Wind, yes.

aka Daria 4 years 14 weeks

hell.fuckin.no! and ugh, I hate the image of Che every freakin loser around here wears a shirt with his face on it yet i'm sure 90 percent of those idiots don't even know who he is.

Lukin 4 years 14 weeks

I would do it in a heartbeat (and I am going to, because I'm going to the thirteen and a half hour long AMC Oscar nominee showcase on the twenty-first...!), but not for a Soderbergh film. I wouldn't sit through forty-five minutes for that headache.

ilanac13 4 years 14 weeks

no - i've put myself through movies that were 3 hours and that was too much. Benjamin Buttons was even pushing it - so i can't imagine 4 hours in a theater or even sitting at home watching one thing straight.